COLOMBIA, SC (AP) – Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina secured a fourth term in the U.S. Senate, defeating Democratic challenger Jaime Harrison in a race that brought together an impressive fundraiser, drew national attention and represented the Graham’s 25th most difficult re-election fight in Congress.
“This victory is an answer to many prayers,” Graham told supporters on Tuesday night in Columbia. “For those of you who have followed this race from a distance, I hope you have understood the message. If you do not receive this message, there is no hope. “
The competition between Graham, 65, and Harrison, 44, turned out to be the most expensive race ever in South Carolina, with both candidates presenting a record fundraiser that exceeded a total of $ 200 million and continued to grow in the last days of the race. Harrison raised $ 57 million in the third quarter alone, breaking all quarterly Senate fundraising records. He became the first United States Senate candidate to accumulate a war chest of more than $ 100 million over the course of the race.
Graham told the Associated Press at the end of last week that he had also raised at least $ 100 million, his $ 28 million collection in the third quarter. the largest ever posted by a Republican Senate candidate in a quarterly filing period.
Graham used to criticize Harrison for relying mainly on supporters from outside the state, who made up about 90% of his donor base. At first, through relationships forged in part by his position as associate chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Harrison achieved a high profile that brought small-dollar donors from across the country, many channeled through the Democrats’ ActBlue fundraising portal. .
In his quest for a fourth term, Graham also left the state in search of money, with about 86% of his funders living elsewhere than in South Carolina. Both candidates, along with groups of third parties who invested money in running, they waged ceaseless advertising campaigns on television and in digital spaces that sometimes left voters fatigued with the content that flooded them with each step.
For Harrison’s financiers, Graham spoke directly on Tuesday.
“You wasted a lot of money,” he said. “This is the worst return on investment in the history of American politics.”
Some research in the final weeks of the campaign showed a face-to-face dispute.
But Graham has gathered support across South Carolina, where all state offices are occupied by Republicans and support for President Donald Trump remains strong. Graham’s newly minted close relationship with the president played an important role, with Harrison and other critics portraying him as very willing to agree with his former enemy, whom he once called “racial, xenophobic, fanatic bait” . Graham said he considers it in the interests of his constituents to align himself with the president, who remains popular in South Carolina.
With 86% of the expected votes, Graham led Harrison by almost 15 percentage points, a margin that was close to his 2014 victory over a state senator, who raised about $ 500,000 in total.
Graham’s victory on Tuesday also seemed to mirror that of Trump, who defeated South Carolina by more than 16 percentage points over Democrat Joe Biden.
In the final weeks of the race, Trump’s appointment of Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court created a double challenge for Graham. As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Graham was tasked with conducting confirmation hearings, which began just three weeks before election day, as well as defending his own seat.
Graham seemed to take it easy, taking a few moments to defend his ability to represent the needs of its constituents, such as calling the Affordable Care Act “a disaster for the state of South Carolina”, blaming the program for closing rural hospitals advocating, instead, a bloc’s subsidy program. Harrison, however, drew attention to what he saw as Graham’s hypocrisy in the previous opposition to appointments to the upper court in an election year and he loved having the state very much to himself, changing from a largely virtual campaign pushed online due to the pandemic and spending more time keeping socially away, face-to-face events.
In his concession speech, Harrison said on Tuesday that he wished Graham the best and hoped the Republican would strive for bipartisan work in his fourth term.
“I hope he will maintain the spirit of cooperation for which he is known, as we take a step forward in creating a new South,” said Harrison, using a phrase he often repeats in the campaign.
Helen Sims, 49, who works at a Wal-Mart, voted for Harrison on Tuesday, saying Graham should have helped Americans struggling with the pandemic before prioritizing Supreme Court hearings. She said Harrison’s education and youthful energy will lead to better results for workers.
“We are in Jaime’s place,” said Sims, who is black. “Jaime is compassionate.”
Tim Orr, a Lexington asphalt contractor, said he was voting to re-elect Trump after a loan for a small business and his $ 1,200 stimulus check helped keep him afloat after the pandemic. But Orr, 63, was less enthusiastic about Graham, citing his unequal support for Trump, but he didn’t want to play the race for Harrison.
“He has to be left where he is,” he said of Graham.
On Tuesday night, Graham said he heard voters loud and clear and would take his message with him to Washington.
“I’m going back to the Senate on purpose,” Graham said Tuesday night. “I never wanted my job more than now.”
___
Michelle Liu, a member of the Associated Press / Report for America Statehouse News Initiative, contributed to this Lexington report, SC Report for America is a national nonprofit service program that puts journalists in local newsrooms to report on covert issues.
___
Meg Kinnard can be contacted at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP.
___
Find full AP election coverage at APNews.com/Election2020.